On Tuesday of this week, the Millville City Commission held a work session meeting. On the agenda for this meeting was a discussion regarding the hearing to challenge the zoning resolution to Reese’s House that was scheduled for April 4.
During this meeting, the city solicitor advised the Commissioners that since the case was already appealed to Superior Court (due to a late filing of the municipal appeal from the challenger), the court had jurisdiction and the city should indefinitely postpone the hearing. We spoke against an indefinite postponement in favor of dismissing the case entirely since it was late, but the Commissioners voted unanimously to indefinitely postpone the hearing.
We are happy to know that we will not have to incur the unnecessary expenses and hassles of a hearing at this time, but we still believe that the claim should have been dismissed entirely. Mr. Abbott filed the claim late and as such the claim has no merit. He even stated that in the complaint that he filed! Unfortunately, the City Commission did not share that opinion.
While that is postponed, we are beginning our work to defend the resolution in court. There is a case management conference that is scheduled for this Monday morning (3/27) on Zoom in Cumberland County Superior Court. This conference is a chance for all parties to meet and discuss the case as a whole. Nothing will ultimately be decided here; rather, it is the precursor to anything else happening in the court process.
While we are cautiously optimistic about our chances to win, we are still very concerned about what is facing us. As we mentioned previously, we still do not have an attorney to represent us in this process. It has been incredibly difficult trying to find quality representation in our area. There aren’t many land use attorneys and those that are practicing, either have a conflict of interest in the case or already have a caseload that is too heavy. If you know of a good land use attorney anywhere in the NJ, Philly, or Delaware area, please email us at contact@ourfuturefirst.org to send your recommendations!
Please send any prayers, positive vibes, energy, and anything else that you can think of our way as we prepare for this next step on the journey for Reese’s House. We definitely need it! If you would like to stay updated with everything that is going on with this process and more, please sign up for our email list by clicking here (no spam, we promise!). If you would like to help support us, just click here.
As we promised, we will continue to keep you in the loop with what is going on and how you can help!